This was the first portal to appear and as such, everyone wants inside! It is located just outside the cave that leads into the hot springs, and it's very crowded. Several gnomes have been stationed here to keep students, horsemen, and citizens in line, but they have to be swapped out regularly in the face all of the pure, unadulterated love pouring out of the portal. It makes their skin melt off a little bit.
What's Inside? You emerge from this portal in a hedge maze, its walls so high that even the strongest fliers, climbers, and teleporters doubt they can scale them. The sky far above is a pale pink and every so often a wispy heart-shaped cloud drifts into view between the branches and leaves. Despite the height of the walls, the maze's interior is lit with a pinkish glow.
What Do I Do? Try to fly/climb/teleport out:
You can't. The hedges go on for, like, ever.
Attempt to find your way out of the maze some other way:
Whether you're having a leisurely stroll or a shaky, claustrophobia-induced jog through the maze, eventually you notice the stone kushi-kushis. They peek out of the foliage at random intervals, mostly when you're not looking for them, their vacant little faces staring up at the sky.
People are talking. They say the only way to get out is to kiss the kushis.
Quote:
Roll 2d12 per post and match your results with the image/numbers below. Each dot or pair of numbers is a kushi-kushi that you may kiss if you roll its location.
How Do I Leave? Each person must locate and kiss five kushi-kushis in order for the portal to appear at the end of the maze. It will take you back to the hot springs.
What Do I Get? +2 RP points x2 Heart Boxes an IC 5 pound bag of red hots
Art by: Scyerline Pin by: Lucyal
Cherry walked up to the first portal, the heart portal. She saw everyone there and the little creatures keeping everything in order. She had never seen creatures such as these and wondered where they had come from. Perhaps the strange portal, she shrugged and decided to go into the portal and see for herself what was going on. She arrived in the hedge maze and looked around trying to decide which way to go first. She looked up at the sky with it's pink shade and heart shaped clouds. Cherry giggled as she touched her own pink hair. Cherry calmly walked along till she noticed the stone kushi-kushis. Cherry raised her eye brow when she heard someone say the only way out was to kiss the funny stone figures. She finally shrugged and decided to give it a try. Cherry pouted she thought she had seen one, but it seemed to have disappeared on her, so she continued to look for the strange stone figures.
As one of the first to examine this weird portal when it had shown up, Rojo was back to see how others managed. He fell through with surprising confidence, his jaws parting in a grin as he landed without stumbling or breaking apart. The skeleton bent to kiss his first kushi—or rather he pressed his teeth to it and made a faint muah sound—but his attention was on a pink-haired ghoul up ahead rather than the animal itself.
"Hello!" he said, catching up to her and bowing his head in greeting. "Isn't this place cool?" He pointed to a kushi-kushi as it ducked back into the leaves. "I can help you catch them if you'd like?"
Cherry smiled when she saw the skeleton with the hat and flower, and heard him say hello. She said some what confidently "Hello" Cherry had gained a little confidence under her belt working at the school carnival, with so many other students. She nodded then and said "Yes this is an intresting place, I've heard whispers at school that a tower appeared, which was interesting, but I don't think the student council allowed students to go there, it was before my time" she said with a shrug. Cherry watched where he turned his head and saw one of the creatures. She leaned in and kissed the weird little stone figure, then stepped back and said "Sure thing" warmly
At her mention of a tower, Rojo stood up a bit straighter, something in her words sparking a memory. He knew the tower she spoke of; it was for some creatures other people called horsemen and, it was true, they hadn't been allowed inside as far as he knew. But he had been there once. He'd had luminous black bones and commanded a power the likes of which he'd never felt or would feel ag—
The skeleton came back to himself at the sound of her kiss. He smiled at her when she replied in the affirmative, and carefully stepped deeper into the maze. It wasn't careful enough. When he turned to look, all of the kushis were gone.
"Being quiet is supposed to help," he said with a shrug.
Cherry titled her head and said "I hope I didn't upset you, did you go in??" she asked curiously
She then looked around for the little stone figures again, Cherry spotted another little stone figure and she said quietly "Oh there's one" then she leaned in to kiss the strange little figure. "This is an odd thing, but interesting, good break from classes" she said amused
"Oh, no! I'm not upset at all!" he replied. If anything, being in the tower had been exciting, he just hadn't thought about it since it had happened. It was like it had been... not erased exactly, just pushed out of his mind by classes and gossip and giant glowing portals. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "I think it might have been a dream. It was fun though!" There had been multicolored pools and stairs and... well... he supposed the fighting hadn't been all that nice. But, no matter!
Being appropriately silent this time, Rojo approached one of the stone minipets and kissed it like he had the first.
He then nodded in agreement. "I'm not sure why they're here, but they are fun! This... Scarentines. I had never heard of it until this morning." Supposedly Jack Skellington himself had visited, though Rojo couldn't fathom why.
Cherry smiled and nodded and said "I'm glad" then she pouted "Oh well humm dream maybe, then it was a big dream" she said with a giggle "Since I've heard more than one person was suppose to have had that dream, but I can hide in shadows, so shared dreams aren't shocking" she said with a giggle. Cherry shrugged "I grew up in a rather quiet shadow demon family, so I don't know anything about Scarentines either." She had however heard of Jack Skellington travel to another holiday world, but she didn't know which one, or really anything about other holidays. Cherry caught sight of another stone figure and she kissed it.
Ooo. Shadows. Rojo had never met a shadow demon before. "Oh! Do you really think so?" The idea of dreaming with other people was completely foreign to the boil, but around here he supposed he couldn't rule anything out.
Another kushi-kushi appeared and he gave it a quick smooch.
"I wonder if we'll ever have any more. Shared dreams, I mean. They sound cool!"
Cherry laughed and then said "Well we went through a portal and are now in a hedge maze kissing stone figures.. who's to say this isn't a shared dream as well that we will barely remember when it's over" Then she looked about again.. She pouted a bit, not seeing any this time.. "Humm wonder where they went??"
Rojo paused, his bony right hand almost touching a thick patch of leaves. Could this all be a dream? Really? He supposed so. Despite what she said, he hoped he remembered it better this time.
"Yes! I guess things are weird here too." He smiled, the expression faltering slightly when he felt the weight of something land on his hat. He removed it and the kushi kushi that was now sitting on its brim, kissing it before holding it out for the ghoul to take and watching it hop away instead.
"So... how do you like Amityville?" he asked, glancing between the demon and the hedge as he put his hat back on. "I am Rojo, by the way."
Cherry smiled and nodded, then she said "I like it a lot here, I enjoyed the carnival greatly" she said warmly "A lot of the other students seemed to like my balloon dart game greatly" and she thought to herself, it's certainly better than living with my family.. Cherry watched the little stone creature hop away and then she looked around for another one before saying "You can call me Cherry" Cherry rolled her eyes as she tried to catch one, but it ran into the bushes. "Shish fast little creatures"
"Cherry," he said brightly, testing out her name on his metaphorical tongue. It was a nice name. A fun name, like his. "I am sorry I missed your game. I'm sure I would have had a good time too." The carnival had been quite hectic from what he recalled, much more so than the student council booths later on.
Rojo ran ahead, reaching for a kushi that easily evaded his grasp. "Yes. They are. I am not sure what the Scarentines creeple are trying to show us here." A touch of sarcasm tinged his tone, but his body language didn't echo it as he skipped farther into the maze.
Cherry smiled and then shrugged "I have no idea I really don't know much about their holiday at all" she said shyly looking around for a of the little stone creatures. She saw one and tried to catch it, but it wiggled out of her hands before she could kiss it. "Darn it" she said softly
"Lots of hearts." Rojo shrugged. From what he'd seen, they used the things as much as Halloween used pumpkins. "And kissing." He bent quickly, trying to grab a minipet that promptly ran away. "Of things that do not want kisses."
Cherry frowned "Umm hearts like the heart beating things?? Or black in some creatures??" she asked confused, and she shook her head "We are certainly doing plenty of kissing here" she laughed, Cherry spotted one of the stone figures, she then leaned froward and kissed it quickly..
Where is it?
